DETROIT -- Considering all the factors, manager Jim Leyland had a simple message for Matt Tuiasosopo for his first regular-season start in a Tigers uniform: Good luck.

Sunday dawned cool and windy, with the gusts blowing from the right-field foul pole to the left at Comerica Park. It's a stadium in which, until the start of the homestand, the 26-year-old journeyman had never even set foot.

Oh, and CC Sabathia was scheduled to pitch for the New York Yankees.

"I want to wish him the best of luck in left field today, because the wind's going to be blowing 25 mph. It's pretty big out there. Here's a map and keys, and good luck buddy," Leyland joked.

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"He's very athletic, so I think he'll do just fine. But it probably won't be the most ideal conditions to play your first game in left field for the Detroit Tigers.

"But I'll tell you what, he'll be ready."

No question about that.

He was even ready with a joke.

"He told me if I was scared, he'd put (Andy) Dirks in instead. ... I told him I was terrified. No," Tuiasosopo said with a laugh. "Heck yeah, can't wait. I'm excited."

Even to face Sabathia, despite an 0-for-3 mark to date.

"I hit one good off of him in Seattle, lined out. I'm excited. He's got to throw the ball over the plate," Tuiasosopo said. "Nothing's changing."

Except his not-yet-statistically-significant track record against Sabathia.

Tuiasosopo singled in his first at-bat Sunday, walked in his second, and singled again in his third. After going 2-for-2 against the Yankees' big lefty, Leyland left Tuiasosopo in to face right-handed reliever David Robertston in the eighth, with runners on the corners and two outs. Tuiasosopo struck out to end the rally.

Even a bad day against Sabathia wouldn't have changed his status a whole lot, though. The key for Tuiasosopo, if he's to succeed in his role as the right-hander spelling Dirks occasionally, is to keep his swing the same short, compact stroke that the Tigers saw for part of spring training -- especially when he went on a tear.

"I've seen both. I've seen a long swing and a short swing. Earlier in spring, I saw a longer swing. As the spring went on, I saw it shorten up. Now, the key is, can you keep that when you're not a full-time player? So we'll get a little bit of an idea today," Leyland said before the game, acknowledging that Tuiasosopo knows what he needs to do, as well.

"Oh, yeah. ... He knows what's going on. This guy's got it figured out. He knows he's getting an opportunity. He's going to be ready. It's not going to affect what he's doing here if he has a tough day at the plate, or anything."

He needs to deal with playing in a spacious left field at Comerica, as well, and he's worked hard taking balls off the bat in batting practice through the spring and into the season to compensate for a lack of everyday playing time in the outfield this spring.

The ball found him early and often in his debut -- with a foul fly in the first, and three hard-hit balls flying at him, over him or past him in the second -- but he made every play necessary.

There is no change in the makeup of the committee, but there might be a new chairman.

While the Tigers are still planning to go with the 'closer-by-committee' approach for the foreseeable future, manager Jim Leyland hinted Saturday that he might be leaning toward giving one pitcher the preponderance of chances, if things play out to plan.

"A lot of it depends on how it's set up. Right now, we're just kind of mixing and matching. Right now, if I had my -- most likely what we're going to try to do -- as I say, we will use anybody, but the ideal situation, probably as we sit right now, is probably to get Benoit for the ninth inning," the manager said.

"Now, I'm not saying Benoit is the closer. Please don't say that.

"What I'm saying is, we figure the lefty-righty combination, with him being effective against both guys, if rested and available, you would lean that way probably more often than not. But I don't want that to be interpreted as, all of a sudden, Benoit is the closer. That's not what I'm saying."

Part of the consideration is the fact that, of the veterans back-end arms, Benoit has the closest to a neutral split versus left-handed and right-handed pitchers. Right-handers hit .217 off Benoit last season, while lefties hit .237, with only slightly less power.

Avila started and played the entirety of Saturday's game, then was scheduled to have Sunday off, anyway. He arrived at the ballpark with good news -- the healthy birth of daughter Avery Noelle early Sunday morning -- and was in uniform for Sunday's game.

Short hops

Sunday's crowd of 39,829 made it the highest opening series attendance (127,333) for the Tigers since 1948. That season, eventual Hall of Famers Bob Lemon, Bob Feller and Hal Newhouser were the headliners of a Tigers-Indians series that drew 135,768. ... Torii Hunter had two singles, making him the ninth Tigers player in the modern era to have multiple hits in five of the team's first six games of a season. Magglio Ordonez (2010) and Chris Shelton (2006) are the only two from post World War II.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Journal Register Company. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.